Vehicles
This gear category includes all methods of transport, including mounts (which are treated as vehicles when ridden and standard NPCs otherwise). Vehicle Basics Vehicle Skills and Focuses There are 12 vehicle categories: Personal Ground Vehicles, Standard Ground Vehicles, Heavy Ground Vehicles, Mounts and Animal-Drawn Vehicles, Personal Aircraft, Performance Aircraft, Service Aircraft, Rotary-Wing Aircraft, Personal Watercraft, Standard Watercraft, Ships, and Submarines. All vehicles within each category are controlled with a skill or skill focus, as shown on Table 4.71: Vehicle Skills and Focuses. This table also lists the additional penalty for making an untrained skill check to control a vehicle from each category. Vehicle Crew and Supplies Each vehicle acquired as part of a character’s Lifestyle, Possessions, or mission gear includes basic crew and supplies required for operation. If the vehicle is acquired as a Possession, this skeleton crew consists of a number of Tier I vehicle crew members equal to the vehicle’s first Occupancy number minus 1. If the vehicle is acquired as part of the character’s mission gear, this skeleton crew consists of a number of Tier I vehicle crew members equal to the vehicle’s first Occupancy number minus the number of characters on the team. Each of these standard NPCs possesses the following statistics. Vehicle Crew Member (Standard NPC — 6 XP): Init II; Atk I; Def I; Resilience: I; Damage Save: I; Competence: II; Skills: Drive V; Wealth: None; Weapons: None; Gear: None; Vehicle: None; Qualities: meek (–16), non-combatant. The GC determines what supplies a vehicle requires, though the complement should only include Common Items absolutely necessary to get the vehicle from Point A to Point B (e.g. food for the crew, power for essential systems, tools for basic repairs, etc.). All other gear must be requested separately. Entering and Leaving a Vehicle Entering or leaving a vehicle is a move action that consumes 5 ft. of movement (for a personal vehicle), 60 ft. of movement (for a vehicle possessing the quality), or 10 ft. of movement for any other vehicle. A character may make a Reflex save (DC 15) to bail out of any vehicle at any time. Whether successful or not, this counts as the character’s bonus 5-ft. step during his next Initiative Count. Vehicle Acceleration In order to determine the distance a character, animal, or vehicle covers while increasing its speed, consult Table 4.74: Acceleration to Distance. This may not increase a vehicle’s speed beyond its Top MPH. Terrain and Weather Vehicles are complex mechanical devices and don’t always respond well to extreme environments — hazardous terrain and weather can critically impair an unprepared vehicle. All Maneuver checks are modified as shown on Table 4.76: Vehicle Hazards. All hazard modifiers are cumulative. Spin Outs and Forced Landings Outside a chase, when a moving vehicle becomes broken (or a moving air vehicle becomes immobilized or loses its last hour of fuel), its driver must make a Maneuver check (DC 20 if moving at, or slower than, its cruising MPH; DC 35 if moving faster than its cruising MPH). With success, the vehicle comes to a safe stop. With failure, it crashes. When a moving vehicle is destroyed, it automatically crashes. Vehicles in Combat Attacking a Vehicle Attacking a vehicle is handled with the basic combat rules, except that if the vehicle is in motion, the driver’s Dexterity modifier applies to its Defense. A vehicle’s Defense is further modified based on its Power Ratings relative to those of any attacker, as follows. *If the vehicle’s Acceleration Rating is higher than that of an attacker, its Defense increases by the difference between Acceleration Ratings. *If the vehicle’s Turning Rating is higher than that of an attacker, its Defense increases by the difference between Turning Ratings. Vehicle Damage All standard Damage save rules apply to vehicles. Additionally, each time a vehicle suffers a critical hit, the attacker rolls 1d20 and consults Table 4.72: Vehicle Damage. The vehicle suffers the corresponding effect 1 time per Damage save the vehicle fails as a result of the hit. Any damage result that can’t be applied is re-rolled. Also, a character may attempt a vehicle variant of the Called Shot trick. He reduces his Initiative Count by 5 and accepts a –6 penalty with his attack check, but with a successful hit and 1 or more failed Damage saves, the attacker chooses, rather than rolls, the affected Vehicle Damage location. In this case, the failed Damage saves have no effect on the vehicle and are ignored after the listed Vehicle Damage effects are applied (i.e. the vehicle suffers the listed Vehicle Damage effects instead of the failed Damage saves, not in addition to them). A vehicle may not suffer more than 1 Vehicle Damage result per attack. Vehicle Damage results have the following effects. All of these effects are cumulative. Animal: One random draft animal pulling the vehicle suffers the attack’s damage minus the vehicle’s Damage save bonus (min. 0). Cargo: One random cargo item suffers the attack’s damage minus the vehicle’s Damage save bonus (minimum 1). If the damage possesses the quality, the Damage save bonus decreases by an equal amount before it decreases the damage. Controls (Cont): For each Damage save failed, the vehicle’s Turning Rating decreases by 1 (minimum 0). If this decreases the Rating to 0, the vehicle becomes immobilized and may not move again until it is repaired (with a skill check as if it were broken). Engine (Eng): For each Damage save failed, the vehicle’s MPH values each decrease by 25% (rounded down). Each 25% is applied separately when multiple Damage saves are failed. Further, for each Damage save failed, the vehicle’s Acceleration Rating decreases by 1 (minimum 0). If this decreases the Rating to 0, the vehicle becomes immobilized and may not move again until it is repaired (with a skill check as if it were broken). Flotation (Flot): For each Damage save failed, the vehicle’s Acceleration and Turning Ratings each decrease by 1 (minimum 0). If this decreases either Rating to 0, the vehicle becomes immobilized and may not move again until it is repaired (with a skill check as if it were broken). Further, the attack floods one of the watercraft’s interior compartments, subjecting any unprotected occupants to the effects of pressure and suffocation. Fuel: For each Damage save failed, the vehicle loses 1 hour’s fuel. If the vehicle catches on fire as a result of this attack (or if it’s already on fire), its remaining fuel explodes, inflicting explosive damage as shown on Table 4.73: Vehicle Explosions. Vehicles powered by diesel, oil, nuclear fuel, or batteries cannot explode. Lift: For each Damage save failed, the vehicle’s error range with Maneuver checks increases by +1. Occupant (Occ): One random occupant suffers the attack’s damage minus the vehicle’s Damage save bonus (minimum 1). If the occupant hit is a standard NPC and the damage possesses the quality, the Damage save bonus decreases by an equal amount before it decreases the damage. If the attack has a blast increment, the damage is applied to 1 additional random occupant per 5 ft. of blast increment (up to a maximum of 1/2 the vehicle’s current occupants). Rotors: The vehicle must make 1 additional Damage save against the attack’s damage minus the vehicle’s Damage save bonus (minimum 1). With failure, the rotors shatter and the aircraft crashes. Traction (Tract): The attack hits one of the vehicle’s tires. The tire must make a Damage save against the attack’s full damage, gaining a bonus determined by the vehicle’s Size: +0 for Small or smaller, +1 for Medium, +2 for Large, +4 for Huge, or +6 for Colossal or larger. If this Damage save fails, the tire is punctured and the vehicle’s Turning Rating decreases by 2 (minimum 0). If this decreases the Rating to 0, the vehicle becomes immobilized and may not move again until it is repaired (with a skill check as if it were broken). Weapon/Secondary Gear (W/G): One random weapon or other piece of vehicle gear suffers the attack’s damage minus the vehicle’s Damage save bonus (minimum 1). If the damage possesses the quality, the Damage save bonus decreases by an equal amount before it decreases the damage. Vehicle Signature A vehicle’s signature is a measure of its relative visibility to non-visual sensors such as radar or sonar, as well as its Defense against weapons guided by such systems. The types of signature from which a vehicle may benefit differ according to its basic movement mode, as follows. Ground vehicles have radar and thermal signatures. Current technology doesn’t permit radar-guided weapons that can pick a vehicle out of “ground clutter,” so a ground vehicle’s radar signature only serves as the DC for searching ground-surveillance radar. Some anti-tank missiles are infrared-guided and use a ground vehicle’s thermal signature when targeting it. Aircraft also have radar and thermal signatures. In both cases, anti-air missiles use these signatures to find their targets. Watercraft have radar, sonar, and thermal signatures. Certain weapons track all three signature types, though a submarine that dives is undetectable by radar and thermal imaging, so only its sonar signature is relevant once it slips beneath the waves. Special Note: Structures may possess signatures as well, based on the circumstances at hand (e.g. all structures possess a radar signature equivalent to their actual Size, while a building on fire would possess a much larger thermal signature, per the GC’s discretion). Using Signature in Play Signature comes into play in two ways. First, when a guided weapon is fired at any vehicle, it may only target the vehicle’s signature Defense. Second, when a sensor is used to locate any vehicle, an Electronics (Int) check is made against the vehicle’s signature DC. This check gains a synergy bonus from Search and possesses the Gear Only (sensor), Hearing, and Vision tags A vehicle’s signature Defense and DC are equal and based on the vehicle’s actual Size or its signature Size (with a listed signature Size taking precedence), as well as other factors, as shown on Table 4.75: Vehicle Signature. A vehicle’s signature Size is listed in parentheses following the or qualities. Vehicle Qualities Qualities are one of the ways that broad, identical rules are applied to large numbers of vehicles and weapons. Qualities may not be added or removed except through the application of certain upgrades. A vehicle may not possess two mutually exclusive qualities (e.g. and , and , and , or and ). If a vehicle possesses one of these qualities and gains the other, both qualities are lost (though one of them may be added later without incident). Vehicle Tables Vehicle Upgrades & Weapons -AV **A